1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to various articles with slide fasteners, each of which is provided with a slide fastener and has a structure for preventing its fastener elements and end stop from being damaged and its slider from being loosed out of a fastener tape even when a strong tearing force is applied to the slide fastener.
2. Description of the Related Art
Slide fasteners have been adopted in a broad range of fields including clothes, miscellaneous articles, industrial material, various seats for automobile, train, airplane and the like, and tunnels. In general, it is used as opening/closing device for clothes, miscellaneous products, bags and the like. As for an ordinary structure of a slide fastener, a slider is loaded on engaging element rows of a pair of right and left fastener stringers, on which a plurality of engaging elements are attached at equal pitches along opposing side edges, and an end stop is attached to both upper and lower ends of the engaging element row. An ordinary top end stop is attached to right and left fastener tapes except a special top end stop, and a bottom end stop is attached across opposing edge portions of the right and left fastener tapes. By sliding the slider along each element row, the engaging elements are engaged and disengaged.
The slide fastener is largely classified to two types. According to one type, engaging elements are attached to an identical plane to a fastener tape and its engaging element row is inserted through a guide passage of a slider comprising upper and lower blades and an element diamond. According to the other type called concealed type slide fastener, opposing side edges of a pair of right and left fastener tapes are bent into a U-like shape and set, engaging elements are attached along the right and left bent edges such that their heads oppose each other, and a slider having a lower blade and an element diamond is loaded on the element row, the element row being inserted therethrough.
Further if classified functionally, there are an ordinary slide fastener in which engaging elements made of metal or synthetic resin are attached to a fastener tape made of fiber and a slide fastener having a waterproof function. As for the typical structure of this waterproof slide fastener, a fastener tape has a waterproof structure in which both the front and rear faces of a core material are covered with an elastomer such as natural rubber or synthetic rubber, the core material being of woven or knitted fabric tape. Fastener elements made of synthetic resin are molded integrally along one side edge of the fastener tape so as to stride over both the front and rear faces by injection molding. Usually, a through hole is formed in an element attaching edge portion of the fastener tape at a position where each fastener element is molded. The through hole serves as a passage for molded resin of each fastener element and is provided to connect upper and lower half portions of a fastener element molded on the front and rear faces of the fastener tape.
Such a slide fastener may be attached to a variety of articles for use. However, if the slide fastener is attached to the back portion of, for example, a women's clothes which makes a slider operation difficult to perform or the operation of the slider is heavier than it in ordinary sliders in case of a wet suit which has a waterproof structure, the slide fastener of the article often needs to be opened or closed in an unreasonable posture depending on the types of the articles. Further, the aforementioned clothes is often fit to the body firmly even when the slide fastener is opened, so that it is extremely difficult to put it off. Thus, an opened portion of the clothes needs to be pulled strongly in order to expand the clothes further. When a strong force is applied to the article, the force is applied directly to the slider. As a result, the fastener elements running inside the slider may be damaged or the slider itself may be damaged or a pressing force applied to the bottom end stop of the slider is added. Consequently, the bottom end stop may be damaged or may loosed out of the attaching portion.
To meet such a circumstance, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,964,485 discloses a slide fastener, in which a tension tape having flexibility is disposed crosswise to fastener stringers between outer side edges of a pair of right and left fastener tapes at a position adjacent and above a bottom end stop attachment position on the rear face of the slide fastener, and its both end portions are sewed to the outer side edges of the fastener tapes and opposing side edges of clothes. In the slide fastener of U.S. Pat. No. 1,964,485, one of the opposing side edges of the clothes is provided with a covering portion extending so as to cover a pull tag of the slider and a mating side edge. By adopting such a configuration, even if a strong force (tearing force) is applied to right and left fastener stringers when attempt is made to open the right and left fastener tapes with the slider keeping contact with the bottom end stop, the tearing force is received by the tension tape, so that the force is blocked from being transmitted directly to the slider. As a consequence, the slider, the bottom end stop and the fastener elements are prevented from being damaged or coming off.
In the slide fastener disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,964,485, only both the end portions of the tension tape are fixed to the outer side edges of the pair of right and left fastener tapes. The length of the tension tape is set to be slightly slack when the slide fastener is closed. As a result, if the slider is slid in an attempt to close the slide fastener, the lower blade of the slider is hooked by the tension tape or the tension tape is caught between the upper and lower blades of the slider when the slider passes through a space between the tension tape and the fastener stringer, thereby often disabling a subsequent slider operation. Consequently, the slide fastener cannot be closed completely, or if the slider is loosened from the tension tape by force, the tension tape may be damaged. In the worst case, the tension tape may be loose from its fixing state or the tension tape may be torn.